Inspiration & Insight

by Corinne McLaughlin, Gordon Davidson and Ginger Young
The Center for Visionary Leadership
9/17/08

With a very significant presidential election upcoming in the U.S., and continued conflict in the Middle East and elsewhere, many groups are organizing nation-wide meditations this Fall to invoke the highest good.

As philosopher David Spangler reminds us, no president can bring about the truly essential changes—the changes of mind and heart, consciousness and spirit—that will most deeply heal the problems in our world. Essential healing can only be catalyzed by each of us, as we empower ourselves and activate our own "Inner President." As each of us takes responsibility for change in the world, we alter the spiritual quality of the whole system--just the way a small change in the acid/alkaline balance of our bloodstream promotes health and fights off germs.

President Franklin Roosevelt is famously said to have told someone asking him to support some key legislation that the bill was great, "but now you must go out and force me to sign it"—that is, organize masses of citizens to make it politically popular for him to sign. This is our political task as citizens today, as presidents have limitations on what they can do, upheld by our system of checks and balances.

With hurricanes, floods, droughts, and wildfires raging everywhere around the world today, the issue of global warming is truly in our face. Perhaps we need to read the "Book of Life" more carefully to see what Mother Nature is telling us about why things are so out of balance. Is She trying to wake us up and remind us of our connection to Spirit and to all living beings? Will these crises motivate us to make the personal lifestyle and spiritual changes we each need to—as well as the collective political action that is being called for?

The causal relationship between human thoughts and emotions and weather patterns is not normally visible, unless dramatized by the timing of a physical event. The inner causes of natural crises are often complex, including both human and non-human causes, but it's instructive to consider the karmic dimension of recent natural disasters, highlighted by their timing.

Humanity is the bridging kingdom between the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms and the higher spiritual kingdoms because we contain elements of all the kingdoms within us. The Native Americans and other aboriginal peoples know this and so create sacred ceremonies, such as rain dances, to help heal and balance our mother the earth. Our true role is to channel love and blessing energies to these kingdoms--rather than create imbalances in them through our negative actions and emotions. What prayers and meditations can we do to help bring balance and restoration to the earth?

Many thousands of people are doing this today in their love and caring for nature and animals through the ecological movement. Plants and animals, in turn, absorb human emotions and help heal them. Many scientific studies have shown that plants are affected by human thoughts and emotions. Our tenderness and compassion for plants, animals and other humans will create a more gentle and loving environment, with fewer natural upheavals. May each of us and our world be blessed by truly benevolent and gentle relations with all of life that shares this beautiful planet with us.